Wednesday, July 30, 2014

WordPress for the time being

I'm currently experimenting on WP. So, kindly redirect yourself to www.alphaditya.wordpress.com

Thanks for visiting!


Sunday, July 6, 2014

That moment when Sharapova said "I don't."

"Do you know Sardara Singh?"
"Nope. Who is that?"
"He is the captain of our national hockey team."
"Oh okay."

"How about Jonah Lomu or Kieran Read?"
"No idea sirji. "
"They are amongst the all-time legends of rugby."
"Cool.. So what?"

A few days back a Russian tennis star responded similarly to a question, "Do you know Sachin Tendulkar?"

Big deal, one would think. But, alas! All hell broke loose online. Irked SRT fans ransacked the internet, defaming and cursing the unsuspecting Maria Sharapova. Innumerable trolls were created within minutes and flooded facebook timelines. Tweet after tweet were posted mocking the young sportswoman-cum-model. The term 'atheist' suddenly found a new definition. #WhoIsMariaSharapova began trending worldwide.. Some 'loyalists' went to the extent of smearing Sharapova's official FB page  with pro-Sachin chants.

Seriously?!

This is what the 'new' India has grown to become, sadly. One would expect a more educated population on the web. But this episode was just one of the many instances of how volatile and jobless 'apun ki public" is. People just wait for an opportunity to channel then long pent-up frustration on a nought issue.

I do agree that being in the field that she is, she ought to be in the know about colleagues in other sports - at least the legends at that. After all she knew Bekham and Jordan (thankfully!). But would the British have reacted similarly had she refused to recognize a personality like Bekham?

Indeed, SRT is an irreplaceable legend and a 'God' for Indian cricket. Fans should have sneered at the comment; instead their feeling of insecurity and inferiority (something which we, Indians, develop naturally) came to the fore. Both these personalities are stalwarts in their own right. The little master would surely not endorse the hullabaloo, being the person that he is.

Thankfully, another online faction rose almost immediately to show that sense still prevailed - at least in a small percentage of webizens. Many articles and blogs came up in defense.

The issue was, of course, put to rest peacefully but it did serve as some food for thought (and also gave hungry surfers a dose of humour!).

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

A Happy Doctors' Day indeed

Hey Doc! Wish you a very happy Doctors’ Day!
Thanks buddy.
So what do you actually DO daily?
Umm, I am a doctor. I treat sick people.
Yeah, right!
Wait, what!? Isn’t that something great?
Wake up bro…
What do you mean? I save lives.
Really?
Of course!
How many souls have you saved thus far?
Umm, not save-save. But I do cure people of dreadful diseases.
Really?
Umm, not cure-cure. But, you know..
Yeah. I DO know.
Well, at least I do something. I bring about a difference in people’s lives. I make them happy.
Riiiiiggghht. And the rest of the world does none of that, huh? What is so different?
Oh come ON! (frustrated).
You work, you earn. So does everyone else.
You don’t have any IDEA what we do or how painstakingly we do it.
Enlighten me.
Well, how about this? We study hard and get into med school. We go through four-and-a-half years of hard-core training. Add then a year of internship to hone our skills. We study again and specialize for another 3 years. A fortunate few get into another 3 years of higher specialization. We then work dedicatedly, sacrifice our personal life and serve. Spare a thought for us.

Let me translate that for you, Doctor. You are a moron to get into med school. You waste five-and-a-half years of your life to be back at square one. At this point you can’t save your own ass, let alone save a life. You can confidently prescribe Paracetamol for fever. Hello? The guy at the pharmacy store down the street does that. You are so ashamed of yourself that you decide to ‘specialize’. You fritter away another three (or four, or five) years of your youth before you can finally be a confident practitioner. Wait… that again depends on the quality of college you specialized in, doesn’t it? To quench your guilt, you specialize further. At the end of it, you are in your mid-30s. Your youth is long gone. You are married. You have a kid. You, now, start your ‘career’. You go through the struggles of a newcomer. But it now takes a toll on you because your age can’t take it – the stress, the insult. You carry your frustration home and that’s how you ‘sacrifice’ it. By this time in life, you have invested so much time, money, energy and hopes, that you are forced to ‘work dedicatedly’ and ‘serve’. By now, you are so screwed up that you put up a brave face and face the world.

You are fondly remembered on the 1st day of July every year.
On most of the other days, you are dragged to court, beaten up by local gundas, bullied by the government and insulted by the police.
As a member of the noble profession, you don’t feel proud. You feel ashamed. You feel frustrated. You feel disgusted. You feel helpless.
And you can’t do anything about it.

But anyway, wish you a very happy Doctors’ Day!